More on Pre-Election Dread: "There is a sizable movement in this country that seeks to literally vote out democracy"

Greg Olear says a mouthful when he states, 

This has been a week of profound unease.

And as he notes, the primary source of our anxiety is, for many of us, at least, Tuesday's election.  

As U.S. Elections Near, Charles Pierce Notes: "Every twist and turn in every campaign is wrought by the money power"

Sun parakeet in cage, photo uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by High Contrast

As Perry Bacon Jr. notes, the reason U.S. elections are so close is that the nation is so polarized, with ideological camps that are more or less equally balanced, at least when it comes to those who actually vote.

Money Makes the World Go…. Commentary on the Role of Big $$ in Political Life (with Asides about Twitter and Covid)

Joseph Keppler cartoon, "The Bosses of the Senate," from Puck, 1889, at Wikimedia Commons

Robert Reich explains succinctly who exacerbates the culture-war tensions in the US and why that "who" is doing this: 

A Valuable Opportunity Tomorrow, April 25: "American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel" — "In Oklahoma, You Can Be a Democrat or You Can Be a Christian. But You Can't Be Both"

In Oklahoma, you can be a Democrat or you can be a Christian. But you can't be both. 

~ Rev. Robin Meyers, Mayflower United Church of Christ, Oklahoma City

I'd like to draw your attention to this promising-looking resource. Tomorrow at 3 P.M. CST / 4 P.M. EST, there will be a live online screening of the award-winning film "American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel," directed and produced by Jeanine Butler and Catherine Lynn Butler. Information — including information about how you can log in and watch — is at this link.

Who Catechized Devin Nunes?

Devin Nunes is Catholic.

Who catechized Devin Nunes?

Who normalizes men like William Barr and Devin Nunes (and Patrick Buchanan and Sean Hannity and countless others) in American Catholicism — while figures like Dorothy Day are regarded as marginal and negligible?

— 𝕎𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕒𝕞 𝔻. 𝕃𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕤𝕖𝕪 🌈 (@wdlindsy) November 25, 2019

If I Were a Young Person Seeking a Church Home for Myself, Why Would I EVER Want to Consider a Church in Which….

If I were a young person seeking a church home for myself, why would I EVER want to consider a church in which

As Polling Data from 2018 Elections Shows Quite Specifically White Evangelicals Are Trump Base, Valuable Recent Commentary

This is a genius piece from @RonBrownstein. The Trump/GOP base isn't whites. It's white evangelicals. https://t.co/d4ityAc4yR pic.twitter.com/3ZfetIjU10

— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) December 11, 2018

 

As an exit poll conducted by the Edison Research group in the 2018 elections shows that Donald Trump's base of support is not white working-class people in general, as is often suggested, but white evangelicals quite specifically, and as Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, daughter of a Southern Baptist pastor and graduate of Arkansas' Southern Baptist university Ouachita declares that she will be remembered by history as "transparent and honest," an assortment of statements I've read recently about these issues:

Election Aftertakes: "Democrats Led Republicans by More Than 12 Million Votes in Senate Races" — And Vote Count Problems from Arizona to Georgia to Florida

Notice that the caravan totally disappeared as an issue as soon as the votes were cast -- not just Fox News, but mainstream media too. Guys, you really need to take a hard look in the mirror and ask why you're so easily played 2/

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 9, 2018

Sabrina Siddiqui:

Among the most eye-catching was a statistic showing Democrats led Republicans by more than 12 million votes in Senate races, and yet still suffered losses on the night and failed to win a majority of seats in the chamber.

Southern Baptist Convention's New Smiley Face: What Really Lies Behind It, When We Get Beyond Media Spin?: "Wives, Submit to Your Husbands"

Perhaps as a former Southern Baptist, I should keep my mouth shut. In the view of the mainstream media, which love a both-sides-have-good-points approach to these issues, I have an "agenda," as an LGBTQ Christian who repudiated my family's Southern Baptist church after it split in 1964 or 1965 over the question of whether to admit African-American members. Franklin Graham and Robert Jeffress don't have an agenda, in the eyes of the mainstream religious media. 

Twitter Responds to NY Times on Overlooked (White) Conservative Voters in Northern California: "Rural Whites Are the Only Folks Who Matter"

Conservative voters in the northernmost reaches of California feel alienated by the state's liberal urban majority https://t.co/N1McsLwq2x pic.twitter.com/bKSuLnFy8N

— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) July 3, 2017

My Twitter feed in the last few days has offered a number of incisive responses to the article New York Times published on 3 July (see the tweet above) about how conservative voters in northern California feel alienated from the state's liberal urban enclaves. As a number of respondents have noted, we've seen an endless stream of such articles in the mainstream media since the 2016 elections — the overlooked white working-class voter, the ignored white working-class unemployed miner in West Virginia, the maligned white working-class gay man for Trump: on and on and on ad nauseam.

A Twitter Thread in Response to Franklin Foer on What's Wrong with the Democrats

No mention at all of the significant role played by gerrymandering and voter suppression to lock in GOP control, as a minority. 1) https://t.co/PYX2jepDyW

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) June 21, 2017

This is a Twitter thread in response to Franklin Foer's "What's Wrong with the Democrats?" in the latest issue of The Atlantic. 

Chris Morley on UK Election Results and What They Mean: On-the-Ground Report from Manchester

Guardian front page, 10.30pm edition: Exit poll shock for May pic.twitter.com/SN6Q5utBYD

— The Guardian (@guardian) June 8, 2017

And since we're talking politics here today, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share with you one of the wonderful reports Chris Morley posts in comboxes here on an ongoing basis — this one having to do with the election that just took place in the UK. Chris lives in Manchester, and so his commentary is on-the-ground commentary from that part of England. Here's Chris's report:

Brittmarie Janson Perez, "On the Informal Powers Trump Brings to the Presidency"

I'm honored today to have an outstanding, timely, minatory (as in, warning us of a threat we'd be foolish to ignore) essay to share with you from Brittmarie Janson Perez, entitled "On the Informal Powers Trump Brings to the Presidency." Brittie's essay follows:

Robert Leonard on Why Rural America Voted for Trump: A Critique of the Argument

Robert Leonard's recent op-ed piece in New York Times on why rural America voted Trump is receiving a lot of attention as a cogent new statement in the growing body of literature upbraiding American liberals for their failure to understand the thinking and mores of heartland citizens who voted for Trump. This literature inevitably proceeds from the assumption that liberals live for the most part in "elite" enclaves on the two coasts of the nation, and have done too little to inform themselves about what people think and feel in flyover country — hence their abasement in the 2016 elections.

Tired Old "Discussion" of Democrats As Anti-Religious after 2016 Elections: Valuable Recent Commentary

I've never seen a group of people so happy to do such evil as take healthcare away from 30 million Americans. pic.twitter.com/kJJv5vdTNt

— CoryBooker2020 (@CBooker2020) January 5, 2017

Following a presidential election in which 4 in 5 white evangelicals and 3 in 5 white Catholics and Mormons placed Donald Trump in the White House, claiming "pro-life" intent as they did so, there is a predictable "conversation" now in the mainstream media about the purported tone-deafness of the Democratic party and liberals to religion. This "conversation" takes place repeatedly in the mainstream media following Republican political victories. It reinforces the assumptions that 1) Republicans own religion, 2) religion is to be equated with its right-wing iterations, 3) the religious views and practices of people who do not equate religion with its right-wing iterations should be ignored as the media discuss religion in American politics, and 4) non-right-wing iterations of religion are to be kept in check by the mainstream media.

Tweets on Eve of Historic U.S. Election: "Will Always Be Remembered as the Presidential Election in Which the KKK, the KGB and the FBI All Supported the Same Candidate"

This will always be remembered as the presidential election in which the KKK, the KGB and the FBI all supported the same candidate.

— Victor Laszlo (@Impolitics) November 2, 2016

The Twittersphere is on fire today, with one zingy tweet after another commenting on American political life (and culture) on the eve* of a monumentally important election. To save you the trouble of weeding through tweets, I'm sharing some I've noticed today. And liked, admittedly, because of their wry humor, something I see myself in desperate need of on the eve of said monumentally important election. Here goes:

Helpful Links: Live-Streaming of PRRI-Catholic University Press Conference on Catholic Vote; Text of Father Martin's Bridge-Building Address

A follow-up to what I posted yesterday about the media event PRRI is holding today with Catholic University of America, regarding the Catholic vote: as Chris Morley points out in a comment following that posting, PRRI has tweeted that the press conference will be live-streamed. The link for the live-streaming provided by PRRI's tweet points to the C-Span Live Stream site.

PRRI Finding That Six in Ten White Catholic Men Support Trump: What We Can Expect to Hear (and Not to Hear) Now in Catholic Discussions of This Finding

Regarding PRRI's latest finding — that some six in ten white Catholic men intend to vote for Donald Trump — which I discussed briefly yesterday, we will now begin, I predict, to see articles focusing on the fact that there's a considerable gender gap between white Catholic males and white Catholic women in this election cycle. Those articles may well emphasize the fact that about half of white Catholic women support Hillary Clinton.

PRRI's Latest: Nearly Six in Ten White Catholic Men Voting for Trump

From PRRI today: 

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Celia Viggo Wexler Calls on Tim Kaine to Embrace Label "Cafeteria Catholic" — "Jesus Was a Cafeteria Jew"

Celia Viggo Wexler, a practicing Catholic and author of Catholic Women Confront Their Church: Stories of Hurt and Hope, calls on Tim Kaine to embrace the label "cafeteria Catholic" after Kansas City archbishop Joseph Naumann tried to pin it on him as a slur. She writes,